Reasons why I bought it: This is the latest version of processor from AMD codenamed Vishera. It has new microarchitecture, which basically uses 32nm meaning it consumes less power than previous generation, and this is the best-bang-for-your-buck product compared to intel’s processors. Also, it just works and paired with AMD’s improvements (just read the product detail if you want to know more) made it quite tempting to buy on sale. In addition, I found no need to use an aftermarket cooler or a liquid cooler SO FAR lol, cooler provided by amd has no problems with overheating even on games maxed like gw2, sc2, sleeping dogs. I believe the max temperature for AMD FX series is about 60-65 degrees C, and mine is maxing at 35C. So, I think I’m good. Also, I want to point out that all Visheras are unlocked, which I believe means you can overclock it as high as you want if there’s no heating problems.

Requirements:1) Make sure you have a mother board that supports fx processors, usually it’ll be “AM3+ mother board”

Comparisons:1) Even though AMD’s line of processors can’t beat intel’s higher end i7, I think the price for Visheras really makes it quite worth the money, but this can compete with intel’s i5.

2)Comparing FX-6200 vs FX-6300: Both are 6-core processors but the fx-6300 is newest model with 10-15% increase in performance.

Recommended to:If your a gamer, I’ve read a lot that six core isn’t really necessary for gaming as of today (maybe in the future), and 4 core is more than enough for most. But if your also a semi-heavy multi-tasker, novice video/photo editors on a budget, I think this processor is a good product to consider or if you want something better, and want to stick with AMD you could go all out and get an 8350 along with a liquid cooler.

I really want to comment on shipping even though it says your not suppose to, oh well Amazon can edit this out if they want. Everything arrived sooner than expected which was a good surprise, but I didn’t know that it wasn’t going to be packaged in a box to keep it safe, however, the cpu was unharmed,looked like it wasn’t even touched. So if you’re really worried about it getting damaged on the way, you can gift it so they’ll put it in a nice safe box.

The FX-6300 processor has been able to run all the newer games I have tried playing on it (coupled with a newer GPU of course). With an aftermarket cooler it runs ~30 deg C under load at stock speeds and voltage. I also own a sandy bridge Intel i7 system, but I am very happy with the value to performance of this processor so far. No regrets!

When the FX series first came out, it wasn’t what AMD fans had expected. The bulldozer architecture had many shortcomings. When these first came out, I bought the FX 6100 processor. After about a week of trying to like it, I sent it back and put my Phenom II x6 1055t back in. Many people insisted that it was my motherboard and ram that were the real problem, but I upgraded both (990 board/1866Mhz ram). So when these new piledriver processors rolled out, I decided to give it another go. This FX 6300 exceeded what I expected. It handles single threaded applications much better and does everything much better. All my games had a framerate increase of 10-15fps over my old Phenom II. I am very happy with this chip and how easily it overclocks. Just get a good cooling unit before trying to overclock and you should be good.

Edit: I was never using the stock heatsink/fan with this chip, I am using the Cooler Master Hyper TX3 with arctic silver 5 thermal paste and I have never had temperatures over 40 celsius even when doing 6 core video encoding at full cpu load and overclocked to 4.4ghz.